66. Brazenly Unashamed (Please vote for recommendations!)

"Hello?" Fan Lin was squeezed outside the contract-signing area by the crowd, growing more anxious by the minute, when her husband Zhao Xi called her.

"How far have you gotten in line?"

"I just turned the corner, still about a hundred people ahead of me. Where did you go?"

"I’ve already managed to get inside! Listen, thank goodness I did! This is all an inside job."

"What?"

"The houses have already been reserved by people with connections; this is all just for show. If I hadn’t been quick, we wouldn’t have been able to buy anything!"

"…"

Zhao Xi hesitated. "Linlin, I feel like something’s off about all this. Maybe we should think it over?"

"Think it over, my foot!" Fan Lin hung up, growing even more frantic.

Right now, in the contract-signing area, there were more clients than sales agents—each agent had to deal with about a dozen clients. Everyone needed to sign, stamp their names, and pay; the process was terribly inefficient.

What made Fan Lin even more anxious was seeing one client signing five or six contracts at once.

There were only 180 units available; if you acted fast, you got one, if not, you missed out.

But in front of her, there were still at least dozens of people crammed together, blocking her way—there was no chance of squeezing through…

Chen Ling and Zhang Peng stood just outside the sales office cashier, waiting for the scalpers who had completed their contracts to hand over the paperwork so they could make payment on their behalf.

After all, each reservation number required a 20,000 yuan deposit—a hefty sum not easily distributed to every individual.

Zhang Peng looked at the bustling contract area, feeling a mix of excitement and underlying anxiety.

It wasn’t a matter of trust, just that inevitable uncertainty before the outcome was known.

"What’s wrong?" Chen Ling asked when he noticed Zhang Peng’s distracted gaze.

Zhang Peng gave a wry smile. "Don’t be fooled by my second-generation wealth. This is the first time I’ve spent money like this. Twenty thousand here, twenty thousand there—just like that, over half a million has already been spent!"

"Afraid you won’t make it back?"

"It’s not fear, it’s just… this uncertainty is frustrating."

Chen Ling smiled faintly. "You’d better get used to it. We’ll face this kind of uncertainty countless times in the future."

"Just like your father when he started his business—he didn’t know for sure he’d make money, right? Every investment is like this. If the outcome were certain, it wouldn’t be called entrepreneurship; it’d be just going through the motions."

As for me, this is just a formality, Chen Ling thought quietly.

Zhang Peng pondered his words, then nodded. "You’re right. Sometimes I’m really curious—your family isn’t well off, but you always seem so nonchalant about money. Do you really regard money as nothing?"

"Come on," Chen Ling laughed and scolded him. "If you want to make money, you have to respect it first! Money is no dirt to me—I’m not that noble. I just have confidence in my judgment, and in our team."

"Confidence?" Zhang Peng paused, falling into thought.

It seemed that ever since he was young, he’d hardly encountered uncertainty. His father had always cleared the path for him in advance.

His life was a series of straight lines—from A to B, then B to C, or sometimes straight from C to H…

Smooth, flat, without turmoil.

He knew he was lucky, but now it seemed this luck had given him certain psychological shortcomings.

Yet Chen Ling seemed to smooth out those shortcomings.

"So it’s me who can’t do without him, but he could manage without anyone," Zhang Peng thought silently.

Fan Lin, unable to squeeze into the contract area or find a sales agent, eventually began circling the area, edging closer to the cashier’s counter.

The two young men standing outside the cashier quickly caught her attention—they didn’t look like clients, nor sales agents, nor any other staff.

So who were they?

Fan Lin began to observe them surreptitiously.

Soon, she saw something that chilled her to the core…

Each client, upon completing their contract, was accompanied by one of the two into the cashier’s cubicle. When the client left, the young man’s hands were empty.

Contracts, receipts, stubs—all clipped together with paperclips and tucked into a massive briefcase.

The two young men chatted and joked with each other, occasionally glancing toward the contract-signing area.

Fan Lin felt she had found the key to the problem.

"Looks like all these people were brought in by these two as shills."

"So, all these houses were bought by just those two?"

"My god, what kind of billionaire would do something like this?"

"Maybe… maybe I could talk to them—beg them to spare me one unit?"

Fan Lin looked at the two; their faces seemed friendly and approachable.

With this in mind, she began edging closer to them.

Chen Ling noticed Fan Lin almost immediately.

Her appearance was too unusual—she looked as if she’d just jumped out of bed and rushed over without a thought for her appearance.

But judging by her clothes, she didn’t seem like a scalper…

He thought for a moment, then went up to greet her. "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ah—" Fan Lin froze, momentarily at a loss for words. After a brief hesitation, she steeled herself and asked, "Did you buy all these houses?"

Chen Ling blinked, instantly understanding, and smiled. "That’s right. We bought them all."

Fan Lin drew a sharp breath. "So it’s true!" Desperate, she decided to try her luck. "Um, could you spare me one? Just one! That’s all I need!"

"Of course!"

"What?" Fan Lin was taken aback. "That easy?"

Chen Ling smiled. "These reservation numbers require not only the original 20,000 yuan deposit, but also an 80,000 yuan transfer fee. Then it’s yours."

"…"

"Eighty thousand?" Fan Lin’s heart sank.

Now she fully understood what was going on.

At that moment, her phone rang again.

"I’m inside. Where are you?" Zhao Xi asked.

Fan Lin glanced at the smiling young man in front of her and decided to retreat for now. "I’m inside, near the cashier’s counter. Come quickly."

Soon, Zhao Xi found his wife at the edge of the contract area.

"Why are there so many people?" He was dripping with sweat. "With prices this high, is everyone made of money? It’s like they don’t care at all!"

"Don’t ask," Fan Lin muttered. "There’s a huge scam going on here!"

She pulled her husband into a corner. "All these people are shills! They were hired to snatch up the reservation numbers, then resell them for a profit."

"What?" Zhao Xi was stunned. "How is that allowed? This is chaos! I’m going to report them!"

He pulled out his phone, but Fan Lin stopped him. "What’s the point? If they dare do this, they’re not afraid of being reported. Haven’t you noticed? The developers are in on it with them!"

"…Then what do we do?" Zhao Xi asked.

"Don’t panic, let me think…" Fan Lin frowned, pondering for a few seconds. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

"Stay here and don’t move," she told her husband. "I’m going to talk to them again…"